Marian Harkin (Sligo-Leitrim, Independent)

I thank the Deputy. I really appreciate the question because it is something that is very important to me.

Ensuring Ireland's apprenticeship population reflects the diversity in our society is a cornerstone in implementing the Action Plan on Apprenticeships 2021-2025. A key objective of this is improving gender balance across all apprenticeship programmes. In implementing the action plan in January 2022, the Government introduced a targeted grant of €2,666 which is available to employers who employ apprentices from a minority gender on programmes which already have over 80% representation of a single gender. This initiative was designed to encourage greater gender diversity in traditionally male or female dominated fields. Of course, as the Deputy knows, it is traditionally male dominated fields. Since its introduction, we have seen a 64% increase in female participation in apprenticeships. In truth, as the Deputy and I know, we are starting from a low level so an increase of 64%, while substantial, still means we have a lot more work to do. An important point to make is that the introduction and growth of consortia-led apprenticeships in 2016 has considerably increased female participation. Of the 2,579 female apprentices at the end of 2024, more than 2,000 were participating in consortia-led apprenticeships.

Apart from that, my Department has launched the Careers in Construction action plan, with initiatives to highlight opportunities in construction for women and girls, including the "building heroes" social media peer to peer campaign, which I will deal with a little bit more later, along with the "facts, faces, futures" campaign, which I will give the Deputy more detail on in a minute.

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